Modern portable consumer and industrial electronics, especially client devices such as navigation systems, cellular phones, portable digital assistants, and combination devices, are providing increasing levels of functionality to support modern life including location-based information services. Numerous technologies have been developed to utilize this new functionality.
As users become more empowered with the growth of mobile location based service devices, new and old paradigms begin to take advantage of this new device space. There are many technological solutions to take advantage of this new device location opportunity. One existing approach is to use location information to provide gaming and navigation services such as a global positioning system (GPS) for a car or on a mobile device such as a cell phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA).
Location based services allow users to create, transfer, store, and/or consume information that affects the “real world”. One such use of location-based services is to provide notifications to consumers about items for sale.
Navigation systems and location based services enabled systems have been incorporated in automobiles, notebooks, handheld devices, and other portable products. Today, these systems aid users by incorporating available, real-time relevant information, such as maps, directions, local businesses, or other points of interest (POI). The real-time information provides invaluable relevant information, when available or in service areas.
In response to consumer demand, navigation systems are providing ever-increasing functionality. However, current navigations systems still lack features that assist sellers in providing highly relevant messages for the purchases of goods and services. Current navigation systems also lack features that assist consumers in making trips for bargain hunting and purchasing necessities.
Thus, a need still remains for a navigation system having location-based supplemental incentive notification mechanism providing low cost, improved functionality, and improved reliability. In view of the ever-increasing need to save costs and improve efficiencies, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.